San Clemente expanding street sweeping - and tickets

Every other Tuesday, the street sweeper arrives on Rod McChesney's street and he watches it cruise down the middle, unable to do its main job – cleaning the gutter.

That's because his neighbors leave cars parked on both sides of the street – there can be 70 of them, he said, since condos and apartments there generate many more cars than there is off-street parking.

"The street never gets swept," he said. Muck builds up along the curb and washes into a gutter. Storm drains carry it to the beach and the ocean.

There's some irony to this. Many of the people on McChesney's street likely voted in 2002 and 2007 to assess themselves $4 to $5 a month as a Clean Ocean fee to fund programs to keep San Clemente's beaches and waves as pollution-free as possible. Street sweeping is a key component of the program.

The fee pays for it. Yet people footing the bill are getting in the way of the sweeper doing its job.

A SOLUTION

That could change. San Clemente's Coastal Advisory Committee has been discussing ways to get more people to move their cars, since the problem persists despite messages in utility bills, newspaper ads and public-service announcements.

The most far-reaching plan is to post every residential street that San Clemente's local government sweeps with "no parking" signs during sweeper hours. Cars left parked in the path of the sweeper on posted streets would be ticketed. The money goes back into the Clean Ocean Fund.

It isn't about revenue, committee members said at their last meeting Jan. 3. It's about getting cars off the streets so the sweeper can suck up the muck and keep it from polluting the beach and ocean.

"It works," Committee Member Ken Nielsen said. He lives on one of 50-plus streets in town where signs are posted and vigorous ticketing takes place every two weeks. On the posted day, all or most cars vanish off the street. If a stray one is left, it's ticketed and chances are the owner won't let it happen again. "Nothing works better than a ticket," Nielsen said.

HOW IT WORKS

The city's contractor, Cannon Pacific, sweeps one side of the street one day and the other side the next. Signs warn residents and visitors which side to keep clear from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on sweeping day. A ticketing car follows the sweeper. If the sweeper has to go around a parked car, enforcers slap a $53 ticket on it.

Residents can sign up for a free service – an e-mail or a telephone message the night before, reminding them to get their car off the street by 9 the next morning.

The program has been in effect since the 1990s. "It's very effective," said Larry Culbertson, a resident who hardly ever sees cars left on his street. Arlene Ross, another resident, said she and her husband Ken sometimes take issue with the job the sweeper does, but people do remove their cars on sweeping day..

BABY STEPS

In March 13, the Coastal Advisory Committee will ask the City Council for a test of three options:

•On one sweeper route, post signs telling the sweeper's schedule and asking people to keep their car off the street.

•On another route, make a concerted effort to get people to sign up for e-mail or telephone reminders.

•On a third sweeper route, post signs, offer a grace period and start writing tickets.

Residents would be told that state water-quality regulators consider street sweeping a "best management practice" to reduce ocean pollution, and the city would compare how effective the options are at getting cars off the street.

Some committee members wanted to skip the experiment and go straight to ticketing citywide. They said the city already has a long track record knowing that ticketing works.

OTHER CITIES

A 2012 report to the City Council said that of six Orange County coastal cities, Seal Beach imposes citywide parking restrictions for street sweeping with ticketing. The other five target select areas.

In San Diego County, Oceanside tickets citywide while nine other coastal cities either do it on some streets or no streets, the report said.

THE COSTS?

Developing a plan to post all eligible streets and schedule sweepers to clean alternate sides of streets on different days would take up to six months and cost up to $25,000, city staff said. There would also be the cost of the signs – not yet determined. But revenue from tickets could offset costs. Citywide, the city spent $517,500 on street sweeping over the last fiscal year. Including enforcement costs, while taking in $311,400 in fines just from the streets subject to ticketing, the city reported.

"That's paying more than half the citywide program," said Tom Bonigut, assistant city engineer. Ticket revenue could dip over tiem, as more people move their cars.

Michael Smith, a member of the Coastal Advisory Committee from Shorecliffs, said people in his area don't know what day the sweeper comes and don't know to move their cars. Colleague Susan Ambrose suggested that if the city explains the importance of effective sweeping, residents will want to cooperate.

"After the initial discomfort of it, people get used to it and move their cars," said Bill Hart, committee chairman. Committee members felt it might be a stretch to ask City Council to post citywide all at once, so they suggested a test this year and perhaps a request to post citywide the following year.